UPDATED: Top-secret Wirral Council letter to library inquiry chairman Sue Charteris (From Wirral Globe)

UPDATED: Top-secret Wirral Council letter to library inquiry chairman Sue Charteris

9:40am Friday 12th March 2010 in News Exclusive By Leigh Marles

A top-secret letter to the chairman of an inquiry into the closure of Wirral libraries - which to date has been kept from public view - has finally emerged.

Wirral Council sought to keep their response to the draft report by inquiry inspector Sue Charteris under wraps.

But a Freedom of Information request to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has brought the document into the public domain.

The council sparked a public outcry last year when it ruled that 11 libraries plus leisure centres, swimming pools and public halls should close.

The plan was "called in" by the DCMS, which told the authority a local inquiry must be held.

In the days before the inquiry's findings were revealed, the Labour and Liberal Democrat adminstration made the bombshell announcement that it had withdrawn the closure plan.

On August 26 of last year, the authority made its official reply to Ms Charteris' report.

She had forwarded a copy of her findings, gleened from site visits to the under-threat libraries and a three-day public inquiry, to a select number of the council's most senior officers and members for "fact checking."

The report and the council's response was considered to be top-secret.

Even the leader of Wirral's Conservative group, Cllr Jeff Green, was forbidden to see a copy.

Councillor Green said today: "The cat has been let out of the bag by the DCMS and I am utterly appalled it has taken this long to end all the secrecy and cover-up.

"So much for a 'fact-checking' exercise. Everyone can now see the council response went way beyond that.

"The reponse letter proves that the administration and the most senior members of the officer group knew how damning the Charteris report was.

"It explains once and for all why they so humiliatingly rowed back from their damaging decision to close our libraries and leisure centres.

"The administration should have resigned then and I call on them even at this late stage to do the honourable thing and resign now."

The five-page response letter argues many legal points with the inquiry chairman and concludes: "Particularly at a time of enormous financial pressures, Local Government is best placed to balance the full range of local needs and priorities against available resources.

"In addition, we do not consider that is a matter for national Government to decide between alternative models of local provision (‘fewer but better’ versus ‘greater local availability’).

"You may personally prefer the local model, but that decision should more properly rest with Wirral’s democratically elected members who will, in turn, be judged by local people at the ballot box."

The Freedom of Information application was made by Eastham Lib/Dem councillor Phil Gilchrist.

His group leader Cllr Simon Holbrook issued a statement in which he says: "I welcome the decision to publish the council's response to the draft inquiry report on Wirral's Libraries.

"It is important to remember that the Secretary of State reached no final view on the inquiry report and made no endorsement of its findings.

"The minister stated at the time the report was published that it would be inappropriate for him to intervene in this matter.

"His decision not to intervene means that the future of Wirral’s libraries still remains where it should be – with the Council who are accountable to local people for the decisions they take over its future.

"I made clear at the time the inquiry report was published that I did not agree with many of its conclusions.

"The letter and comments on the draft inquiry report sent to the report's author from the council's director of law make the flaws of the inquiry evident for all to see.

"Having been unsuccessful in challenging the inquiry chair's interpretation of the 1964 Libraries Act, we simply considered the risk of being found in breach of the Libraries Act too high for the council to take.

"However, whatever our past disagreements, it is now time to put the past behind us and move on."